If you’ve been seriously considering opening your own pizza place franchise business, there are essential things that you must accomplish to get it off the ground. These critical steps will help you enjoy a smooth start and ensure that your business will be profitable and sustainable at once.

Here are five tips to help you out:

Draft a business plan

What are your specific pizza recipes? Will they be more traditional or will you experiment with new ideas? Will you offer slices for sale or will you stick with the usual whole pizza option? Are you going to offer cold drinks and hot beverages? Will your store offer dine-in, take out, and delivery services or will you choose to-go and pick-up only?

These are just some of the questions that you have to answer in your business plan. It has to be as detailed as possible as it will practically serve as your blueprint in running your business. You can revise it whenever needed but at least have a working draft so you can take the necessary baby steps to keep the business running.

Determine your ownership model

Another thing that you should decide on is what ownership model you will settle for. It may be a franchise or you could go for an independent venture. Going indie is advisable if you have fairly substantial capital, to begin with, and if you know what you’re doing from day one. But if you have a limited fund and you’re not exactly an expert in the industry, you might want to franchise instead.

By franchising, you’ll enjoy a relatively lower financial risk and you will have mentors who can show you the ropes of the trade. You can also enjoy the established brand recall of a franchise, so you won’t have to exert too much effort in promoting your pizza business.

Choose a strategic location

In almost all kinds of business ventures, location is everything. As such, take the time to scout for potential locations where you would eventually put up your store. Ideally, it should be close to schools, transport hubs, offices, and other spots with heavy foot traffic. Those people who are going to and from your store are all potential customers, so be sure to find the best location possible.

Hire competent staff

It’s also important to hire competent staff to man your store. Make sure the people you will get have working experience in the food industry so they will have an advantage in serving customers. They should also share your vision and passion for the brand to ensure that you’ll have reliable people to work with.

Prepare your marketing materials

A part of your budget should go towards promoting your business through various channels. It’s a reality that most successful businesses know too well. Fortunately, there are some easy and inexpensive ways to achieve brand recognition, such as the following:

• Visuals. Be sure to have stunning visuals of your various menus, preferably done by a professional photographer and properly laid-out by a graphic artist. In the food business, having professional food photography is an advantage since it’s a great way to entice customers to try one’s products.
• Coupons. You can offer discounts and frequent buyer promos to attract people to your store.
• Social media page/website. You may have a dedicated website for your pizza business or you can advertise on social media sites such as Facebook and Instagram. Facebook, for example, has sponsored posts that you can get for a minimal fee.

Owning a business is a great experience, especially if you’re actually making money from it. Just follow these tips and you’ll have an easy time launching your pizza venture.